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Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

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Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#151

Post by spamizbad »

samstave wrote: post #142
spamizbad wrote: post #63

I’m a hiring manager. My company did a round of contractor layoffs in 2023 and made a smaller number of FTE hires backfills. My advice is to hang in there. Often we have 3 strong candidates per open position. The people we reject aren’t getting rejected because they aren’t a good fit or lack skills - it’s just that someone else was a little better. If I had the budget I’d hire all the great people I have the privileg…

>>> people we reject aren’t getting rejected because they aren’t a good fit or lack skills - it’s just that someone else was a little better. This is one of the most disheartening negative impacts for looking for work when you have decades of success in your career: "We appreciate you applying, but we found others who are better than you. Thank anyway, loser" These emails, are lose-lose-lose; You lose by getting the…

I don't give this kind of feedback unprompted unless it's asked for by the candidate in which case I will happily oblige. But early in my career I would do this by default the first few times until someone screamed "F--- YOU" and hung up the phone at which point I decided its best to just let people ask instead of giving it out freely.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#152

Post by MaxHoppersGhost »

Slix wrote: post #9

I've struggled to find a Software Engineer job for many months, even with FAANG on my resume. It's nowhere as easy as it was when I graduated college 7 years ago. I send out my resume and barely get any answers. I don't even get a chance to interview. That being said, I had a good luck streak in December! I'm waiting to hear back from several companies right now.

The market has been unnaturally juiced by low interest rates for the last decade or so. It should get better but won’t ever get back to what it was for a long time.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#153

Post by MaxHoppersGhost »

thiago_fm wrote: post #130

Was laid off from Big Tech after working nights, travelling around the world for the company and giving everything I could to keep my job. The job market seemed dead, also I was competing with around 500+ people that were laid off as well with me... luckily(!!!) I've found a new job after only 2 weeks. The compensation is lower, but it's fine. Europe compensation for developers sucks in comparison to North America :-…

> The compensation is lower

Unfortunately the job market has cooled, I’m seeing comp lower for all roles unless you’re in a buzzy AI company (which will come to a halt at some point).

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#154

Post by softfalcon »

pie420 wrote: post #104
softfalcon wrote: post #48

I haven't been laid off, but a good chunk of my team was. Anecdotally, I'm hearing lots of stories of companies laying people off and then there are new openings very similar to the position that was let go, but with lower salaries or where one person would be expected to do the work of 2-5 previously laid off folks. In particular, a person I know from EA Games saw half their department let go, and then replacements…

"lower salaries or where one person would be expected to do the work of 2-5 previously laid off folks" so only $300k total comp and 20 hrs of work per week?

In this specific case, closer to $40,000 USD and 40-80 hours per week. These were QA roles at a game development studio in Europe.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#155

Post by FreakLegion »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #102
FreakLegion wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried the monthly HN threads? For example this month's "Who wants to be hired?": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38842975 I'm adding two dozen to the team this year and will start working through that thread tomorrow. I can't be the only one.

Thanks, I just posted to "Who wants to be hired?". I didn't think there was any point until you mentioned that you'll be looking for candidates there.

I looked through all 406 posts today and pulled out a few dozen for a less bleary-eyed re-review tomorrow. If you're a Python person on U.S. soil (we have customers subject to ITAR) you're probably on the list, but feel free to email me for a direct answer.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#156

Post by thiago_fm »

MaxHoppersGhost wrote: post #153
thiago_fm wrote: post #130

Was laid off from Big Tech after working nights, travelling around the world for the company and giving everything I could to keep my job. The job market seemed dead, also I was competing with around 500+ people that were laid off as well with me... luckily(!!!) I've found a new job after only 2 weeks. The compensation is lower, but it's fine. Europe compensation for developers sucks in comparison to North America :-…

> The compensation is lower Unfortunately the job market has cooled, I’m seeing comp lower for all roles unless you’re in a buzzy AI company (which will come to a halt at some point).

Indeed, after a layoff I tried to avoid even interviewing at those "AI for Y" companies that had their cash flows entirely based on VCs and investors.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#157

Post by rcbdev »

mikhael28 wrote: post #146
rcbdev wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conflating finding a partner (flirting) with finding a place that will transact your time and expertise for money (job searching) says more about how you see the world than you might realize.

Not everyone flirts for the exclusive purpose of 'finding a partner', to take the analogy further. Some people do it to find someone to sleep with. Not everyone works to 'transact your time and expertise for money' - some people want to 'fulfill a mission' with meaningful work, and build a purpose driven career. The analogy works better than you think - at the end of the day, all I'm talking about is making a good fi…

You are nitpicking my phrasing to fit your rhetoric device - 'finding a partner' does include finding a partner... for the night.

Of course people want a meaningful job to some extent. According to Herzberg's dual-factor theory, challenging or meaningful work is a motivator that gives positive satisfaction in the workplace. But Herzberg successfully identified that the hygiene factors such as salary (meaningful in the 'transaction' sense of a job) are much more important.

'Transacting your time and expertise for money' is one of the main drivers for working (a hygiene factor), 'fulfill a mission' is merely a motivator. We have known and taught this to managers since the 70s.

A competent employer will of course know about this - be it through having competently trained management or just experience. Managers know that some candidates are completely happy with a high hygiene + low motivation mix. In some situations, this is completely fine and not 'acting like a sourpuss' as you describe it.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#158

Post by abirch »

spamizbad wrote: post #118
lucasyvas wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may be right. Though, depending on where you live the supports for starting something vary wildly. And many people are in a position where it is riskier than ever financially to strike it out on their own. It definitely feels like it's time for next wave of entrepreneurship, but the current environment may make it difficult to realize it. I was laid off in the summer and tried some smaller ideas for a few…

For what it's worth, I'm not suggesting anyone who doesn't want to an entrepreneur to become one. For those who always wanted to do it, I'd say take your shot now while everyone's guard is down. Those efforts will ultimately create more engineering jobs and put more devs back to work - so for those folks who are ICs there's downstream benefits (if you're comfortable working at a startup that is)

Paul Graham agrees with you https://www.paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#159

Post by drakonka »

I've been laid off, but my contract subsequently extended for a while. I have not been actively searching since I have the luxury of taking my time and figuring out what I want to do, but so far interest has been coming in. I've declined one offer and am in a couple of other processes. I keep hearing about the bad job market, which does concern me - should I just grab something new ASAP to secure my spot? Will I be as in-demand a few months from now? But for now, I'm focusing on opportunities that I'd be genuinely passionate about rather than casting a wide net. I guess we'll eventually see if I end up regretting it.
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